La Plata County Vehicular Assault and Homicide Defense Lawyer
A crash that results in serious injury or death changes everything within seconds. What follows is a criminal investigation, and the driver is often the primary target from the moment law enforcement arrives. La Plata County vehicular assault and homicide defense requires someone who understands how these cases are built, how prosecutors approach them in southwest Colorado, and what it actually takes to push back against charges that carry some of the longest sentences in Colorado’s criminal code. At DeChant Law, Reid brings real courtroom experience to these cases, including jury trials where the stakes were as high as they come.
What Colorado Law Actually Charges in These Cases
Colorado draws a meaningful legal line between an accident and a crime, but that line is tested hard in serious crash cases. Vehicular assault, under Colorado Revised Statutes section 18-3-205, applies when a driver causes serious bodily injury to another person while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or while driving in a manner that is reckless. Recklessness under Colorado law means more than bad judgment. It means the driver consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
Vehicular homicide, under CRS 18-3-106, applies when someone is killed. The DUI-based version is a Class 3 felony. The reckless driving version is a Class 4 felony. Both carry potential prison sentences and mandatory parole, and both can result in consequences that extend well beyond the sentence itself.
These charges land in La Plata County District Court, which handles the most serious criminal matters in the region. The cases are often investigated by the Colorado State Patrol, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, or the Durango Police Department, depending on where the crash occurred. Reconstruction specialists, toxicologists, and sometimes accident forensics experts all contribute to the prosecution’s case before charges are even filed.
How La Plata County Cases Get Built Against Drivers
US-160, US-550, and the stretch of Highway 172 through the Animas Valley see significant traffic, and serious crashes happen on all of them. After a fatal or injury-causing crash, investigators are not approaching the scene neutrally. They are gathering evidence with prosecution in mind.
Blood draws are common, especially when officers suspect impairment. Colorado’s express consent law means that drivers have already consented to chemical testing by operating a vehicle. Refusal triggers automatic license consequences and tends to be used against defendants at trial. How and when that blood was drawn, the chain of custody, and the accuracy of the testing are all legitimately contestable issues in these cases.
Accident reconstruction reports are another centerpiece of the prosecution’s case. These reports use physical evidence from the scene, vehicle data recorders, skid marks, and impact analysis to establish speed, driver behavior, and cause of the crash. They can be persuasive, but they are not infallible. The conclusions depend on assumptions, and those assumptions can be challenged by independent analysis.
Witness statements gathered in the immediate aftermath of a crash are often inconsistent, incomplete, or collected before witnesses fully understood what they saw. In the fog of a traumatic event at a rural intersection or mountain highway, what witnesses report can diverge significantly from what evidence later shows. Reid knows how to investigate those gaps.
The Real Weight of a Conviction Here
A Class 3 felony vehicular homicide conviction under the DUI statute carries a presumptive range of four to twelve years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, with mandatory parole. The reckless version, a Class 4 felony, carries two to six years presumptively. Courts in Colorado are also required to impose consecutive sentences in some circumstances, and aggravated ranges apply when certain factors are present.
Vehicular assault as a Class 4 felony carries its own prison exposure on each count. In a crash with multiple injured occupants, the charges can multiply accordingly.
Beyond prison, a felony conviction means loss of voting rights during sentence, the permanent burden of a criminal record on background checks, and for non-citizens, serious immigration consequences that can include deportation or bars to naturalization. Commercial drivers lose their CDL. Professionals in licensed fields face licensing board actions. These are not secondary concerns. For many people, they are the consequences that reshape the rest of their lives.
Driver’s license revocation runs on a parallel track through the DMV, separate from the criminal case. Both tracks require active attention from the start, and missing the DMV deadline to request a hearing forfeits that fight entirely.
Where Defense Strategy Actually Lives in These Cases
The prosecution’s narrative in vehicular assault and homicide cases is usually built around a single causal story: driver was impaired or reckless, driver caused the crash, someone was hurt or killed. Every part of that chain can be examined.
Causation is often less clear than the initial report suggests. Other factors, including road conditions on a mountain highway, mechanical failure, the actions of another driver, or wildlife in the roadway, can all play a role in what caused a crash. An independent reconstruction or a thorough review of the prosecution’s reconstruction can reveal assumptions that do not hold up.
Impairment evidence deserves scrutiny. Blood alcohol results depend on proper testing procedures, calibrated equipment, and a complete chain of custody. Drug impairment cases are even more contested, because the presence of a substance in blood does not establish that the driver was actually impaired at the time of driving. These are genuine scientific disputes, not technicalities.
The recklessness element in non-DUI cases is also worth examining closely. Not every poor driving decision meets the legal standard. Inattention is not recklessness. Speed alone may not be recklessness. What prosecutors charge and what they can prove at trial are often different things, and that gap is where defense work happens.
Reid’s background includes jury trials on serious felony and domestic violence charges, cases dismissed at trial, and DUI cases resolved favorably through both DMV hearings and district court proceedings. That kind of trial experience matters in cases where the government holds a significant evidentiary advantage and where the defense has to be prepared to take the case all the way.
Questions People Ask About These Charges
Can vehicular homicide charges be reduced or dismissed?
Yes. Charges get reduced or dismissed when the evidence does not support the elements of the offense, when the investigation had constitutional problems, or when reconstruction or toxicology evidence does not hold up under scrutiny. Outcomes depend heavily on the specific facts, but a charge filed is not a conviction.
Does it matter if the other driver was also at fault?
It can matter significantly. Colorado law requires that the defendant’s conduct caused the death or injury. If another driver’s actions were the actual cause of the crash, or shared substantially in causing it, that is directly relevant to the elements the prosecution must establish.
What happens to my driver’s license while the criminal case is pending?
A DUI arrest typically triggers a separate DMV proceeding. There are strict deadlines for requesting a hearing, and failing to act quickly means an automatic revocation. The DMV case and the criminal case run on parallel tracks and require separate attention.
Is there a difference between vehicular assault and vehicular homicide for purposes of a defense strategy?
Both charges share similar elements, including the causation and impairment or recklessness requirements, so many of the same defense approaches apply. The difference in severity, however, means the stakes are different and the resources the prosecution devotes to each case often differ as well.
What if the blood draw showed a BAC above the legal limit?
A BAC result is evidence, not a verdict. How the blood was drawn, when it was drawn relative to driving, how it was stored and tested, and whether the result accurately reflects the driver’s condition at the time of the crash are all open questions that may affect how that evidence is weighed or whether it is admissible at all.
How long do these cases take in La Plata County?
Serious felony cases in La Plata County District Court in Durango often move through a lengthy pretrial process involving investigation, motions, and potentially extended discovery before any trial date is set. The timeline varies, but it is not unusual for these cases to take a year or more from arrest to resolution.
Should I talk to law enforcement after a crash?
You have the right to remain silent. Statements made at the scene or in subsequent interviews become part of the prosecution’s case. Declining to answer questions beyond providing identification is not an admission of guilt. Speaking with an attorney before making any substantive statement is the more protective choice.
When the Charges Are This Serious, the Defense Has to Be Ready
Vehicular assault and homicide cases in La Plata County move fast once charges are filed. The prosecution has often been building its case since the day of the crash. Working with a La Plata County vehicular assault and homicide attorney who is prepared to go to trial, challenge expert evidence, and fight through every stage of the proceeding matters from the very beginning. DeChant Law brings genuine trial experience to this work and is available to discuss where your case stands.